What I have done in the past is have an appraisal done based
upon comparable sales in that period (the time in 1996).

Sometimes it dawns on the folks that there might be tax
questions when they are getting ready to sell. In that case
real estate agents will usually do that work for you to get
your business.

Now, after the fact, your best bet is to hire an appraisal
of the property for 1996. A qualified professional can put
that together for you.

BC

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I addressed the situation a year or so ago and needed a
valuation for 1991. A couple of local real estate agents in
that area went on their computers and gave me about 10
comparable sales. I picked the three closest properties in
location and layout and averaged them. I saved all the data
so if an auditor ever wants to review my basis I have it. It
was pretty easy actually.

A crude way of doing it would be to use the newspapers from
that period. Find your own comps or use the information
they run on average sale prices for the year by zip code or
area. Your local library should have them. That method is
a little rough for my taste.

BC

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"Peter C. Gatto, CPA" <pgattocpa[at]excite.com> wrote

- quote -

Sure, in descending order of accuracy and cost:

1. Appraiser
2. Someone with access to and working knowledge of MLS, such
as a real estate agent.
3. If you know enough about valuations, you can search the
"solds" as recorded in the county records. Many keep this
online now. Compare # bedrooms, baths, lot size, etc. of
those in close proximity to the subject.

--
Rick Hess
New Orleans
To reply, eliminate All_Spammers

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Peter C. Gatto, CPA wrote:

- quote -

If you can come up with the county assessed value, how about
asking an experienced realtor or appraiser in the area to
"opine" on the typical relationship between assessed and
market values? For example, in my part of the world assessed
values are generally considered to represent about 90% of
market values. Naturally, there can be cases where this
doesn't produce a realistic result, but it is probably a
reasonable approach.

MTW

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Peter C. Gatto, CPA"
<pgattocpa[at]excite.com> wrote:

- quote -

Appraisers can usually prepare an appraisal today that is
effective as of the date of death. They just use old
comparable from the applicable period. Sometimes they have
to be reminded not to take into account facts that weren't
evident back then (e.g. the freeway came through in 2002).

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"Peter C. Gatto, CPA" <pgattocpa[at]excite.com> wrote:

- quote -

Check with a real estate agent or appraiser. I think the
multiple listing service retains records. They show not
only what property was listed at, but its description and
how much it sold for.

Stu

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(I've also posted this in misc.invest.real-estate)

Is there is a place to find older FMVs for R/E? I'm trying
to determine what the FMV of a property that was inherited
in 1996 would have been valued at the time. The estate was
not large enough to have to file a return and the executrix
did not have a FMV appraisal performed.

Although the county assessed the property for property tax
purposes, that is usually not a good indicator of FMV.

The property was sold in 2004 and I'm trying to reconstruct
what the owner's basis should be when calculating the tax
gain.

Thanks for any help.

Peter C. Gatto, CPA

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